The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to slot machines and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to slot machine systems involving a plurality of slot machines.
Traditionally, a slot machine was a mechanical gambling machine, operated by inserting coins into a slot and often by pulling down on a long handle. Modern slot machines are more typically involving electronic displays and electronic player interfaces; although some machines still maintain a “legacy” handle. Today, because of the added simplicity of determining complex results, using convenient electronic processors, there are many complex variations of slot machine play; especially for multiple players and respective quasi-public social arena environments.
The following references generally indicate how fragmented the gaming industry is with respect to forming a viable social gaming arena for slot machines; a prime objective being to create a variation of the casino style slot machine environment that is capable of spreading to include active participation from remote locations (e.g. home, office, mobile devices, and the like).
For example, U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0014554, entitled “Multiplayer gaming device and methods”, describes a multiplayer gaming device allows two players to collaboratively play, for example, a Monopoly®-style game against the “house.” Each player may have his own game controls, coin dispenser/acceptor, and display screen. A larger display screen may display the game board and player game characters, shared by the two players and operated by the machine. The players may wager a flat fee per game, and are given an amount of game money to use for the duration of the game. Throughout the game, players take turns spinning dice represented on the display of the gaming device, and move around a Monopoly®-style board. As the players move around the board, game money is deducted as they land on properties owned by house players. A player's turn may result in his game piece landing on a game board spot owned by a house player, and cost the player $100 in game money. The game lasts until both players go bankrupt. The total number of game board spaces each player has moved without going bankrupt determines each player's payout.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0130041, entitled “Dynamic tournament gaming method and system”, describes a dynamic tournament gaming method and system, including the provision of a plurality of gaming terminals selectively inter-linkable together with a host terminal so that current players of the terminals desiring to participate in group tournament play can be notified of the opportunity and provided with the choice to play or not. If a current player chooses to play, he so signifies, enters his entry fee into the terminal, and awaits start of the event. Upon start of the tournament by the host terminal, the player will play the tournament game over and over as fast as possible to accumulate as many points as possible during a particular pre-announced tournament period. The host terminal will continuously monitor the terminals of all play participants, dynamically record play status, and control termination of the game period. It will also conduct an accounting of the results, issue win results notification, and perhaps provide remote pay-out of game winnings.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,503,146, entitled: “System and method for facilitating casino team play”, describes a method for facilitating group play by a team of members associated with a casino slot club. The method includes the steps of identifying the team members, identifying a set of rules designated by the team for rewarding the team members when a payout is due to one of the team members, detecting a payout due to one of the team members, and rewarding the team members in accordance with the set of rules.